I wouldn't blame him if he wanted to bolt to Charlotte just to stick around and break Kareem's scoring record. But most likely he'll just retire for a couple years, and then maybe play a season or two in Italy. Doom and gloom, doom and gloom...

"Why are they blocking out all the good stuff? They let Sarah Jessica Parker's face on TV and she looks like a foot!!"

Battle Tested20 wrote:Yeah, all that Kobe has given this fan base and franchise, it's pure blasphemy to say that you hope Kobe retires after this year.

No matter how mad we are at this year's team and how it ends, part of the Lakers will die when he calls it a career. No doubt about it.

I say it because I root for the name on the front of the jersey not the back of the jersey.

I do too, but how many times does a player of Kobe's caliber come to a franchise like the Lakers and stays for his entire career. The Lakers I'm sure will do great in the future when ever that is but you don't seem grateful based on what I've read of his services. That's all I'm saying.

"I just put my faith in God. Through him we can do all things" - Kobe Bryant, March 24, 2004

Battle Tested20 wrote:Yeah, all that Kobe has given this fan base and franchise, it's pure blasphemy to say that you hope Kobe retires after this year.

No matter how mad we are at this year's team and how it ends, part of the Lakers will die when he calls it a career. No doubt about it.

I say it because I root for the name on the front of the jersey not the back of the jersey.

I do too, but how many times does a player of Kobe's caliber come to a franchise like the Lakers and stays for his entire career. The Lakers I'm sure will do great in the future when ever that is but you don't seem grateful based on what I've read of his services. That's all I'm saying.

Hehe, scroll back about 5-10 pages where I spent a good amount of time defending Kobe.

I am grateful but not blindly loyal. I am only blindly loyal to the Lakers.

Anyhow, there always comes a time where you have to let go for the sake of the team. Kobe's contract is HUGE. We can't do squat til it comes off the books. I'd rather we start to suck bad now than wait until Kobe's contract comes off the books.

Last stretch has been rough, it's weird to think he was having one of the better seasons of his entire career only to end up having this awful stretch of inefficient, turnover prone, crap. Every time a Laker game starts to go sour, I always figure "well, at least watching Kobe will still be entertaining, maybe he'll go for 40 or something cool" but lately it's been more like "god, I kind of wish they'd just bench Kobe for a bit, he looks like he needs it".

It´s more of a question of acknolewdge that, and adapt himself to that situation.

Again, we don´t need him to shoot 20+ shots anymore with the likes of Nash,Gasol and Howard in there, realiable scorers if given the chance to do so.

He can facilitate, save some energy, shoot only when he has decent positions (i can´t believe we still give him the ball for 10+ seconds to finish the play with one or two defenders on him) and get the most out of his brilliant teammates, which he has this year, the mode "i´m playing with Atkins,Walton,Kwame" is not needed anymore.

First one who has to realize since we know Kobe has unlimited faith on his abilities is the coach, but unfortunately we have a pretty close minded one and even if he realizes the best way to play this team he won´t be brave enough to do it.

"We need to go back to basics," Bryant said. "We need to put guys in positions to do what they do best. We need to strip it down. Steve is best in pick-and-roll. Pau is best in the post. I'm best from the free-throw line extended down. Let's go back to basics.

"We've got to evaluate what's going on. Management is looking at it. The players are looking at it. I'm looking at myself. I'm a shooting a low percentage right now, and I've got to look at that. It's on me to make shots, but I'm having to make tough shots, getting the ball 30 feet from the basket and [expletive] like that.

"Listen, no one is more critical of their game, of how they're playing, than I am. And right now, I've got to shoot at a higher percentage, have to play better. "

Can't really blame D'antoni for the minutes Kobe plays.. If we were playing like we're capable of, we'd have enough of a lead to rest him early in games & let him close if he needs to. If the rest of the team gets it together, Kobe will get his rest. Huge if at this point.

finally he has started shooting us out of games because of dead legs of playing 43 minutes per game.

yep. he fell off earlier last year, but it's the same deal. he can't do what he did five years ago over the course of a full season. whether it's him or his coaches that are refusing to accept this (it's probably a bit of both) is of little consequence. he's missing open jumpers short, repeatedly. that's just being old and/or tired.

the only way to fix it is to, as kobe indicated, run better team offense. in last night's game, he ball-stopped some, but on possessions where he didn't get a touch, it tended to get ugly. that's a system problem, imo.

Battle Tested20 wrote:Yeah, all that Kobe has given this fan base and franchise, it's pure blasphemy to say that you hope Kobe retires after this year.

No matter how mad we are at this year's team and how it ends, part of the Lakers will die when he calls it a career. No doubt about it.

I say it because I root for the name on the front of the jersey not the back of the jersey.

And because you don't like him. That's fine. Soon enough your wish will be granted.

LOL. You really have no idea what you are talking about. Shoot JGC a PM and ask him if I am a fan of Kobe Bryant or not.

Better yet, just go back about oh....5-10 pages and read my posts. It should answer your questions or doubts.

Haha. Now you know how it feels!

Kobe is the reason I'm a Laker fan today. Saw him after moving down to So Cal back in 2000 and I was just ... wowed. Having said that, I really don't like the way he has played the past few seasons, and I've only joined the board since then so the assumption is I don't like him.

All I want is for him to play differently. I don't want him off the team or anything like that. In fact, I even take a different stance than you. I want Kobe back, I just want him to take a massive paycut (like a 60%-70% cut). And accept a reduced role. I would rather see him play HARD, on both ends of the floor they way he used to, in 27-28 mins per game, then see this lazy brand of basketball he's been putting out there.

He's livetweeting watching the 81 point game on NBA TV this afternoon. He claims to have never watched it before.

@KobeBryant Watching the game now, the easy shots I missed, I could of had 100 pts! #countonkobe

I agree, honestly, you watch that game and he really did miss a lot of stupidly easy shots, had a couple of threes rim in and out. But he made some shots he wouldn't normally make either so it balances out.

I only hope that he doesn't try to go for 80+ now that the team is basically dead in the water, but then again, the team has disrespected him(and Nash) so much this season that maybe they deserve it.

F*** that ref that didn't call that absolute hack foul on a dunk attempt and then gave Kobe a tech for yelling "come on man". Yeah, you f'ed up the call so instead of letting the frustration go you decided to puff out your chest and flex your power. Disgusting. Kobe is the most disrespected superstar in the NBA.

KBJelleyBean24 wrote:Needs a break, 17 yrs in the league+playing 40mpg+guarding best backcourt guard+scoring a third of the team's points= a tired Kobe Bryant

he's not guarding anyone now so stop it, he did it for 2 games and now its apparently killing his leg but all the meanwhile it hasn't stop him from putting up alot of shots anyways.

Yes he is guarding people. And it is killing him. And so are the minutes generally.

But his options are...

Get into the post and create. That takes energy. Kobe's not a huge guy. He gets there and hits shots, but it wears him down. OR shoot jumpers. It doesn't take much energy at all. But Kobe doesn't have the legs so they're lower probability.

Tonight we saw him to the former, and he was on fire. But he wore down.